The present disclosure relates generally to the field of video processing. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to the field of video surveillance processing, video storage, and video retrieval.
Conventional video systems display or record analog or digital video. In the context of surveillance systems, the video is often monitored by security personnel and recorded for future retrieval and playback. For systems with multiple cameras, video camera content from different cameras is typically shown on a bank of displays or monitors. Security personnel can interact with the monitor bank via a user interface (e.g., a workstation). A video server receives input from the video cameras and the user interface can be used to control which camera content is displayed at any one time. The monitors are often labeled and an overhead map of an area of interest (e.g., a map of an airport) is provided to the security personnel (typically on paper) so that the security personnel can match a monitor's content to the approximate camera location. When people or objects of interest move from camera to camera, conventional surveillance systems typically do not provide security personnel with an intuitive way to view such movement. For example, security personnel may need to remember that “monitor D” shows an object that has just moved south from the camera corresponding to “monitor K.”
The Applicant has identified a need for providing content from a plurality of video cameras to a user (e.g., security personnel, law enforcement officers, process engineers, etc.) in a manner that visually relates the content from different cameras on a single electronic display screen.